by Paul Kater
shuttle.
The magicals and their pets retrieved their brooms and waited for the shuttle to lift off. The strange formation then set course for the village.
Hilda and William had fun seeing how Rebel used her strange powers to drop the people to the square. They seemed to plummet to the ground, only to stop a few feet before crashing into it and then landed gently on their feet. The appearing shuttle over the village had brought out almost everyone, including Tarkan. Every person stood watching the machine and the descending people.
Hilda hovered near the open door of the shuttle, talking with Rebel. As the woman from the future let down the last group, she said: "I'll go back with the shuttle pilot and wait for you people. Just send someone over when you're done here."
"Good thinking," said the witch. As she landed her broom, the shuttle pulled away and relative silence came over the village again.
Tarkan was loudly arguing with Kerna, who simply waited for the man to run out of steam.
Hilda and William watched the scene from a distance. "Do you think she will withstand him?" the wizard asked.
"I am not sure," Hilda said, "but we're here. She knows that."
Tarkan waved his arms around as he yelled that 'all these people' had no business in 'his' village. "Everything here was well before you troublemakers came, and I will not allow any further of that!"
"Hold your tongue for a moment."
Surprise came from everywhere, as it was Davdruw who had spoken.
"And who are you? Another of those troublemakers?"
"I am Davdruw. I am the spiritual leader of the people that live in the pyramids. You may think these people are troublemakers, but I have been present at their meeting. Their ideas are sound. They want to think ahead, make more of life than what we have now."
Tarkan stared at the tall man. "More? What more? There is nothing more."
"And that attitude is what keeps others stuck in the place where they are, if they let people like you - and me - influence them."
Kerna's eyes flew from Davdruw to Hilda and William, and back. Confusion and surprise had taken over her expression. Hilda and William were quite stunned by this support from such an unexpected side.
"We are not influencing them. We are guiding them, to the best of our knowledge," Tarkan flung at Davdruw.
"Yes. But what have we done to expand our knowledge?" Davdruw countered.
"That is not the issue here!" Tarkan tried to overrule Davdruw.
"But it is." Kerna, her hands akimbo, scowled at Tarkan. "You can pretend that this world will carry on it always did while you hide in this corner of it, but you are not helping anyone!"
"Who are you, that you dare to speak to me like this?" Tarkan growled.
Kerna made a wand appear, a bright yellow affair. "I am the witch who WAS no witch."
"Did you get her that wand?" William quietly asked his witch.
"No. I don't know where she got that from," she replied.
Tarkan did not surrender just like that. "Go back to herding the goats, girl."
"See? There is your attitude. Nothing changes. Everyone keeps doing what they did since they were old enough to do something," Kerna said, her voice getting louder. She turned to the people who had gathered around after the strange arrival of the new council. "Who of you thinks that this way of life is a good way?"
Hesitantly hands rose, more than was good for Hilda's comfort zone. "I think we have to step in, wizard," she whispered.
Before someone could make a move, Kerna turned to Tarkan. "They are afraid of you."
"No. They use their common sense. This life is good. And if you do something to me, they will fear you, evil witch."
"Such a manipulating bastard," Hilda grumbled. "I'm going to-"
Before she could go to do what she had in mind, Kerna just laughed as she looked at the crowd around them. "So one moment I am good enough to herd your goats, and the next I am an evil witch who should be feared."
She looked at the new council, whose members stood there, a bit lost in the goings on. "These people are going to make this planet a better place for all of us. If you feel like joining us now, feel welcome. If you intend to stick around here and wait until this old man can no longer run your lives, you are welcome then. It's up to you."
The new witch looked around. "Dwey! Where are you?"
The black animal came running and jumped up, entirely happy to be caught in Kerna's waiting arms. "I trust this new council in the same way Dwey trusts me," Kerna said, "it is up to you what you want to do."
39. Meanwhile, back at the pyramids
Hilda, eyebrows raised high, was nearly speechless. "Suck an elf, William. I like that woman's style. She's got more inside her than I had thought when we first met her."
"Where will we live when we leave here?" one of the villagers asked. Quite a smart question, Hilda agreed.
"For now everyone from the village will stay here in their own house if they can. If the others aren't going to make their life bad." Kerna looked around, not threatening but warning. "I am sure we can prepare some basic homes soon. After all, we have magic on our side."
Some consenting murmur rose up here and there. Tarkan looked at the people, but none of the murmurers held back.
"And what are we going to do there?" someone else asked.
"Let's take things one step at the time, shall we?" Rebel stepped in. "We first have to find more people, in the pyramids, and then we can make specific plans towards that. For now it would be good for the ones that want to join, to be ready to gather your things. We'll come back once we have talked to the others."
Kerna nodded, agreeing.
Maurizio then suggested that the group would visit the pyramids. "I'll stay here," he said, "to keep an eye on our friend here." He patted Tarkan on the shoulder. "To make sure he is not going to employ some guerilla tactics, or some good old indoctrination while you're gone."
Tarkan looked hurt. "I would never."
"Great," Maurizio chuckled, "then there's no problem."
"Besides, you will see that all this is unnecessary. We do not have to make the change. We can leave things as they are, and change will come."
William laughed. "Someone called Albert Einstein once said something like that. And he called it the greatest folly."
Davdruw then surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to stay in the village as well. His plain and simple reason was that he liked it there.
Katinki asked the man if he would repeat that, so she could record it on a gadget she had. On her sleeve. "That way we can show the people in the pyramids how he thinks about this area."
Another appreciative nod came from Hilda. "William, can you go and tell Rebel and the shuttle fly-boy to come? We have another house call to make."
The wizard retrieved his broom and his cat, and flew off.
Soon the shuttle hovered over the village, and the new council was transported up by Rebel. Then the shuttle, accompanied by people and animals on brooms, set course to the city of the pyramids...
-=-=-
As they were on their way, they had to deflect a very unusual random rain shower.
"Looks like more than just a few things are failing down there," Hilda commented under their magical umbrella.
They were not far from their destination when they saw that at the pyramids the situation was even more precarious than expected.
A few of the large buildings had more or less collapsed. People were outside, sitting, lying and walking around. As the shuttle and the magicals approached, there was a slight commotion, but somehow most of the people from the pyramids were not able to respond to the strange convoy more except than to look up.
The brooms swooped down and landed close by. The shuttle touched down on a platform not far from the more remote pyramids, and not much later the passengers came out. The ones who had come from the pyramids ran to the devastation and the people sitting and lying. The others hurried along as well, even though they were
entirely strange in this place.
Hilda located Gesmarion, one of the people of the original High Council.
"What happened here?" she asked, without formalities.
"The buildings. The machines. They fell apart, one after the other." The man looked half in shock, but still managed to be mostly coherent. "Others are still inside, they want to stay there."
"Inside which ones?" William asked, but Gesmarion suddenly became a broken record and went on about the machines and the buildings falling apart.
"Looks like we have to go in and do some evacuating, William," Hilda said, popping up her wand.
William nodded and made his wand appear also. Kerna stood with them, her yellow wand at the ready.
"I'm coming with you," Rebel said.
"So am I," Gesmarion joined the ranks, to everyone's surprise.
Hilda turned to the new council. "Try and help what you can, and prepare for more people. We're going to bring them out."
Magically they determined the pyramid that was most vulnerable and likely to collapse, and then they went inside.
Rebel used her strange powers to stabilise most of the construction. The pyramid was so far gone that parts fell down as they proceeded.
Gesmarion kicked in doors while the magicals opened them with magic. In every room where they found people, Gesmarion took care of them, guiding them outside and then the man would hurry back inside, collecting the next bunch.
Some of the people did not want to go voluntarily. Gesmarion would then apply some gentle force, assisted by William's magic, that would simply make them move, if they wanted to or not.
Dust and bits of ceiling powdered down, the magicals keeping